Arrrgh! (FastATA 4000 MK-VI 8.0 and issues with keyboard.)

[danbeaver]

Odd timing.  I got one from Amigakit last week and also thought it was problematic, but my slot was dirty and after a scrub it worked perfectly, even switching from PIO 4 to 5 on a 300 GB drive (CF worked fine).  Perhaps what Amigakit meant was not that there was too little power, but a power supply that has gone, or is going out of spec.  I had an A4000D that acted up in a weird fashion that was unpredictable and hooked it up under load to find that the 12 and 5 volt lines began to vary wildly after it warmed up.  A $25 USD refurb on it fixed everything.  Some stuff (probably with hefty capacitors) can tolerate fluctuations, and other stuff can't.

[danbeaver]

OH, that fantastic PIO 5 speed works out to less than 7 MB/s in my testing, which is still better than 2.4.

[danbeaver]

Get one of these:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=615

...and then go buy a decent modern brand spanking ATX PSU :-)

Did this with my A1200 and never looked back.

Why would you use an A4000 power connector on an A1200?

I just buy a new Hercules 500W silent mATX PSU off ichyBay for $25 with shipping and fit it directly into the A4000D's housing; by splicing the wires one of these looks like an original, is dual voltage, is almost silent, and now that I've done a few, takes less than 30 minutes.

[danbeaver]

Now that's a fantastic idea, one of the goals that I've always had was to make my Amiga quiet...

I'm kind of freaked about the keyboard though.  

slaapliedje

Could you go into more detail on the issues with your keyboard?  If it is just one key, then it needs cleaning; not a difficult task but requires patience due to the number of screws.  Commodore only used real keyboards (Cherry) for the A2000 and only a few were made.  The rest used carbonized rubber contacts that get dirty and needs cleaning:  gently rubbing the bottom contacts with a rubber pencil eraser, then wiping off the residue with a bit of isoPrOH -- alcohol.

[danbeaver]

Are you using a 133 cable (my board came with an ASUS, like I didn't already have several) that has the 80 lines?  The wires on this type of cable are thinner, but twice as many to protect the signal.

[danbeaver]

I hate to say it, but yeah the cable that came with the card looked used (which is more than I can say about the ones in my storage box); then again the speed I am seeing wasn't that great (same as a good SCSI-2 interface).  I was hoping to see it function under OS4.1 as a way to get some better speed out of my backup devices (CF cards).

That looks like a great PSU, but in the wattage range needed it would be hard to find one without a fan.  There are some damn quiet fans out there though.  I did have a Silverstone PSU once that failed just out of warranty, but it looked great even then.  Oh and look!  They sell them at Walmart for $94.

[danbeaver]

You know what I like about that PSU is that if it dies, you can use the housing to strain pasta!

If you pop back to the original specs of the 4000's 200W PSU, you will find one that is fanless and will fit.  Me, I live with a cat that snores, loudly, so silence doesn't happen often here.

[danbeaver]

I thought the A3000 was in that range, but on looking 150W is standard;  the A4000T could handle a Toaster, CSPPC with several UWSCSI drives, multiple Zorro cards with merely a yawn on 240W.  Since they used a straight AT PSU, I bumped up to a 400W for sh-ts & giggles, well $49 too.

[danbeaver]

As I talked about earlier,  I have had PSU's go out of range for their specifications.  When I did a quick check under load (attached to the motherboard), the voltages seemed correct, but a check later showed large variances in the voltages.  This implies that the regulation is screwed and that the components with large enough capacitors are less affected than those with small ones.  Having an A4000D repaired is just as expensive as replacing it with a new mATX supply that easily fits within the old A4000D's PSU box.

[danbeaver]

CF cards can act funny depending on their original design.  There is a long discussion on the way the CF cards firmware identify themselves to the bus and OS, so the same Brand card may act differently within its subset (intended for a camera, video device, etc).  The point of Jens' TrueIDE device was to identify the cf card as a hard drive, rather than its designed purpose.  The IDE-SATA adapter is just a run of the market $2 buck device that appears just like the regular Chinese junk out there.  Amazon and NewEgg have better devices for this purpose.  Hard drives transferring data at 10 MB/s don't need an 80-pin cable, new or used.

[danbeaver]

A multimeter WITH a continuity mode will set you back $12, but you need to test the PSU under load (connected to the motherboard).  The new PSU sounds bad, as even the cheap ones connected with the Amigakit adapter should work fine.  As I've said before, a spot check of a PSU does not reflect variances (wild fluctuations) over time.  The CF adapter should not get hot unless something shorted.

[danbeaver]

I have the same setup for testing motherboards: a mATX (Hercules 500W ~ $25 eBay) plus the Amigakit A4000D adapter with push switch, and it works fine.  I do remember that my PSU that died early was a Silverstone (subcontract?).  Ya might want to check the PSU in a PC setup, or short the green wire with a ground wire and then check the voltages.  They won't be accurate without a load, but they ought to be present.

[danbeaver]

Sounds like you may need someone to either fully test or repair the motherboard, cause something ain't quite right.  Anyone near you with an A4000D you could do a swapsies with and test out their PSU with your MB and then your PSU with their MB?  Or ya could just send the MB to Anthony Hoffman; his turn around time is damn quick despite the distance.

[danbeaver]

Hmm,

OK, replace the CF connector (and card if it fails on a PC), or pm me your address and I'll send you a CF connector and 64MB CF card.
Assume the motherboard is not at fault.
Find another ATX-style to test to see if it is the Silverstone (which is a fornicating rip off if it is the Silverstone).

[danbeaver]

Well, I have the same card (ROM as you do,  and I do have a 300GB HDD I can get a "PIO 5" to work with, BUT the drive speed is less than 10 MB/s.  I have not tried an SSD, but it isn't all that important, well at least to me...